Police in Calif. use F-150 Lightning to charge wheelchair with dead battery
A police department in central California received a call on Monday afternoon about an elderly man stranded in his electric wheelchair in front of the Auto Zone auto parts store, according to the local chief.
“On arrival, it was determined that the chair’s battery needed a charge,” Atwater Police Chief Michael Salvador wrote in a Facebook post.
And that’s where the Ford F-150 Lightning enters the picture.
The police chief titled the news release: “New Electric Pickups Save The Day.”
The police in Atwater, which is about 160 miles east of San Francisco and named for a wheat farmer, have two all-electric pickup trucks because of a grant provided to the city by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. The region is known for high rates of asthma and other ailments related to air quality.
“These vehicles, assigned to the Code Enforcement Unit, are equipped with the ability to transfer power from the vehicle’s battery drive chain, using a feature called pro power onboard, to other battery operated or electric devices,” the Facebook post said. “This capability was used in this case to assist the stranded person by charging the electric wheelchair enough to make it operational once he was delivered to his residence.”
The Facebook update received 204 thumbs up and heart emojis.
Larry Farren posted on that Atwater Police Facebook page, “Great service and good rescue.”
Salvador said in a statement: “With temperatures over 100 degrees, it was important to get this wheelchair operational and get the stranded person out of the heat. These new
vehicles have provided the department with a host of new capabilities that have yet to be fully explored.”
The chief wrote, “These trucks are the first in what the department hopes is a transformation of our fleet to alternative fuel vehicles that lower emissions, fuel, and maintenance costs.”
‘Really cool’
On Thursday, Salvador told the Detroit Free Press that he writes the news releases himself and he’s just really proud of how his team handled assisting a man in need.
“It was really, really cool,” he said. “I mean, we’re glad we were able to help this guy out. We charged up his wheelchair and then drove the man home. It was so hot,” Salvador said. “We (just) took possession of two brand spankin’ new Ford F-150 Lightning special service vehicles from Ford. We ordered them last year, used an air pollution reduction incentive grant for public agencies to help offset the cost. Then we waited a year for these pickup trucks.”
A code enforcement driver called the chief and ask permission to “try something” unorthodox in response to the call for help. He wanted to use the electric pickup truck with electrical power outlets on board to charge the chair.
“I think these vehicles are going to hit a really big sweet spot for us,” Salvador said. “My city is 6 square miles. We purchased these vehicles for animal control and code enforcement. Now that we’ve had them for a week, I’ll probably end up asking my council to get another grant to buy two more for administration and animal control, and expand that fleet for dog catcher trucks. That just makes sense.”
Code enforcement is getting three days of driving on a full Lightning charge, he said. “For us, the Lightning really fits.”
New uses for police
Meanwhile, Ford learned of the Atwater police post from the Free Press on Thursday. “The ability to off-board energy from the Lighting completely changes how many ways the truck can help in daily life,” Marty Gunsberg, Ford spokesman for the F-150 Lightning, told the Free Press. “We’re very happy to see an F-150 Lightning assist another electric vehicle.”
Mike Levine, Ford North America product communications manager, added, “We’re happy to see the police charging something else besides criminal behavior.”
Ford is a top supplier of pickup trucks for police use, including the Lightning. The company designs vehicles to provide additional safety for law enforcement officers. The all-electric Ford pickup has been used to power homes during outages in Texas, and Ford has been tapped by PG&E to provide electricity during natural disasters in California.